A first user from a first organization may want to exchange electronic data with a second user from a second organization. The first user may export administrative data such as calendars, appointments, contacts, and other data for business issues. The first user may use a variety of protocols to share the administrative data. The first user may use a variety of methods to share such data securely. The first user may ask the second user for a material proof, such as a password, digital key, or other authentication method, before allowing access to the data on the subscriber side and to enforce authentication and authorization on the sharer side.
E-mail, or electronic mail, may refer to a store-and-forward method of composing, sending, receiving, and storing messages over electronic communication systems. The term “e-mail” (as a noun or verb) may apply to several different types of systems, including the internet e-mail system based on the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), X.400 systems, and intranet systems allowing users within an organization to e-mail each other. Intranets may use internet protocols or X.400 protocols for internal e-mail service. Messages may be exchanged between hosts using SMTP with software programs called mail transport agents (MTAs). Users may download their messages from servers with standard protocols, such as Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), or with a proprietary protocol.
E-mail may not always be secure. Messages using SMTP, a text based protocol, may traverse the Internet, going through any number of servers, routers, and domains. Along any of these routes, the message may be intercepted and modified. Even if the message is not modified, an undesirable person may be able to view the message's contents, making e-mail unsuitable for confidential business or personal information.
Entities that depend on secure e-mail may operate private e-mail servers that do not transmit e-mail addressed to recipients within the organization over the Internet. Instead, these e-mail servers may transmit e-mail over a secure corporate network, using either a local area network (LAN) or a virtual private network (VPN) in combination with LANs to create a secure channel to connect remote offices of the same organization. However, members of these organizations may want to send e-mail to or share data with a member of another organization.